Cubs Use Long Ball, Hammer Sox (and Chapman is Filthy!) – (VIDEO)

Oh man, it’s fun to watch the Cubs win. And it makes it even more fun to watch Aroldis Chapman pitch. Talk about lightening in a bottle, just absolutely electric stuff and if there were any critics of the trade I’m assuming they’ve seen enough. That was real and that was exciting.

The Chicago Cubs (60-40) scored 8 runs between the sixth and eighth innings and go on to win big, 8-1 (Box Score).

It wasn’t all peaches and cream for the Cubs. White Sox pitcher Anthony Ranaudo was cruising along with a no-hitter as the Cubs were coming up to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. It was a Cubs fans’ nightmare scenario starting to develop. That all changed when Kris Bryant pounded a 3-1 hanging off-speed pitch deep over the left field wall.

In the bottom of the seventh inning the Cubs tacked on two more runs. After Jason Heyward took a walk with two outs, Javier Baez came up to bat and crushed a home run to left field. That made the score 3-0 in favor of the Cubs. But they weren’t done there.

A Ben Zobrist RBI double led off the scoring for the Cubs in the eighth inning. After a Miguel Montero walk, the Cubs had the bases loaded with Addison Russell coming up to bat. He absolutely punished a 94 MPH fastball for a grand slam. And the crowd went wild.

Jason Hammel did his part and really pitched a gem tonight. He had one bad pitch and it led to an opposite field home run by the White Sox pitcher, Ranaudo. That was the only run he’d give up in seven innings.

And then, in the ninth inning, with the Cubs firmly in control, the world finally got a chance to see Aroldis Chapman in a Cubs uniform and it was brilliant. It’s going to be so much fun watching him pitch and it will be even more fun when the Cubs are in a tight game, with everything on the line, and we all know that Chapman is coming in to close it out. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

Stats that mattered

• Hammel was in top form – 7.0IP, 1R, 5H, 2BB, 7Ks
• Three – that’s the number of home runs the Cubs hit which accounted for 7 runs
• Six – the Cubs had six hits and six walks. Patience pays off tonight.

Bottom line

It was great to see the energy that was bursting out of Wrigley Field tonight. Games like these are what makes us all dream about what can be. It was glorious.

Interestingly, it was exactly one year ago today, on July 27, 2015, that the Cubs turned their season around with one huge Kris Bryant walk-off home run. The energy that night was very similar to tonight. The Cubs would go 46-19 the rest of the way.

Next up

The Cubs play the White Sox in the final game of the Crosstown Cup on Thursday at 7:05 PM CDT. John Lackey (7-7, 3.79 ERA) will look to get back on track as he takes the ball for the Cubs.